


don’t tell me you love me because i might (not) say it back

by cherishmartell



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: 3+1, Character Study, F/M, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25791364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherishmartell/pseuds/cherishmartell
Summary: The three times Bobby tells Shelly he loves her and the one time she says it first.
Relationships: Bobby Briggs/Laura Palmer (mentioned), Bobby Briggs/Shelly Johnson, Leo Johnson/Shelly Johnson (mentioned)
Kudos: 5





	don’t tell me you love me because i might (not) say it back

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the early days of their relationship.  
> 

The first time he says it they’re in the back seat of his car. She’s on her back (trying to ignore the candy wrapper that crinkles beneath her every time she shifts), staring up at him. He’d pulled back from their kiss, looking at her in a way she can’t really describe, though he’s left his hand just beneath the hem of her uniform. 

This isn’t the first time they’ve been here, in this place, in these positions. _It’s not even the second._ But there’s a new charge in the air, something electric. Tracing patterns on the soft skin of her thigh, he seems to be working himself up to something. 

It makes her instinctively draw in breath, grateful that Bobby’s done a (mostly) good job of keeping most of his weight off of her. She tries to give him the come hither smile he swore caught his eye that day in the diner... just over Laura’s head. 

_shit, why is she thinking of this now?_

But it doesn't work.

_Or at least, not like it's meant to._

Bobby looks at her with that smile, the crooked one that always made her weak at the knees. But rather than take the lead once more, get to what she's been dreaming about all day, he reaches up, brushing his fingers against the curve of her cheek, and utters the three words any other girl would be overjoyed to hear. 

Panic hits her then, cold and all consuming. 

Somehow, their dangerous little fling has evolved from fumbled quickies in his back seat to something vulnerable. _Real._ They are heading into dangerous waters but Shelly (her voice tremulous from fear and something far, far sweeter) whispers

_I love you too._

The words are said instinctively, a guard against the ugliness she's seen in her husband's eyes. But those words don't save her every time, not when Leo's drunk and already in a mean mood. 

Leo never cared about the meaning, not really. But the words meant that all was as it should be, that Leo was still in control, still the center of her cramped universe.

She's not afraid of Bobby.

_(well...maybe a little. He wouldn't hurt her, she knows that, but if he ever tells his friends about them, if word ever gets out…)_

She's afraid she'll lose him, lose these brief, sunlight moments where she can be young and pretend, if only for a little while, that her life turned out the way it _should_ have. He makes her feel good and she's not ready to give it up, not when everything else is so shitty. 

But Bobby doesn't see that, doesn't see any of it. Instead, he grins at her like she's just offered him another helping of cherry pie and attacks her lips with his. She deepens it, clutching at the back of his head and his shoulders as his hands resume their trek.

They don't talk again, after that.


End file.
